Friday Roundup: A Mean Letter From The Pentagon

I'm not sure what kind of message they think they're sending, but all this says to me is that Republicans are worried about their chances to avoid a pounding in 2008, and have reverted to the playbook from 2004: the Department of Defense actually took the time to make the ridiculous claim that Hillary Clinton's questions about troop withdrawal from Iraq are somehow emboldening the enemy.

It seems like either A) no one in the Bush administration is capable of learning when obvious, partisan, over the top rhetoric like this doesn't work, or B) no one cares. Clinton is undaunted by the ploy, and like other Senate Democrats, will continue to buckle down and demand real action.

And it doesn't stop at the Pentagon. Valerie Plame's lawsuit against Bush administration officials for the leak of her identity — which Bush more or less admitted in a press conference last week — was thrown out by a federal judge. He says it was for jurisdictional reasons (more or less) but you can guess how I feel about it. The appeals process should be interesting.

I've always been of the opinion that there are plenty of social services the government can and should provide, and that the privatization of social services is bad, and usually only geared towards making a few people money rather than actually helping anybody. The Dallas Morning News discusses a report that shows that privatization is almost always really good for the lobbyists that brought it about and a raw deal for taxpayers. You can ask the UK how privatizing worked out for them in the 1980's when Thatcher sold off every social service she could get her hands on to private industry. I think even the Crown Jewels are now owned by BP.

I have some housecleaning to do on a few news stories that deserve a little more attention. First is Ronnie Earle's request that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reconsider their decision to let a conspiracy charge against Tom DeLay slide. I particularly enjoy that DeLay's lawyer went so far as to say that violations of election law aren't really evil like "crimes against another person or theft or robbery or fraud" are. So there's your civics lesson for the day: actions that undermine democracy at its very core aren't the same as crimes against another person! I'm glad no one is affected by such activity!

Via Stop Cornyn comes the news that the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza has caught on to what we already knew: Cornyn's a loser. In this specific case, Cillizza lists Cornyn among his fundraising losers for his inability to compete with Mikal Watts' numbers through the end of the second reporting period. The more people catch on, the more obvious Cornyn's problems become.

That may have influenced his decision to start making some amends with border citizens and officials who are just not crazy about the fence he champions as responsible immigration reform. Now, remember: this is a fence that Cornyn voted for, even though now he laments its implementation. That ought to be a familiar feeling, what with all the superconservative policies he casts his lot with.

Cornyn is making some promises I'm not sure how he plans to deliver on — he says Homeland Security will consult with local leaders and that Homeland Security won't take any "unilateral actions," but seeing as how they're a Cabinet-level executive agency with a clear mandate in legislation Cornyn helped to pass, I'd put my money on Chertoff, even if Cornyn's new best friend is Karl Rove.